Needle vs Shizuru
by Syncope
Summary: Shizuru is possibly sick and needed her blood taken for some tests. Problem worsten when she saw the needle. Now, how will Natsuki calm the trypanophobic beauty? shrugs. i'm too sleepy to care


It's one of those fics that has the power of making you get up of your comfy bed because you know you'll never gonna fall asleep unless it's out of your system. Sorry, it ain't that great. Well, at least I think some facts below might interest you. Shall I put up a disclaimer? Fine.

**Disclaimer:** I'm using Shizuru and Natsuki's name just so readers would have an idea of how these characters look like, since it's a pain to put my Hi-Def imagination in to words. Don't own a thing. Not even the needles used here.

**NEEDLES vs SHIZURU**

"Ara, is Natsuki really sure of this?"

"Of course I am! And you're the one whom requested ME. I didn't wanna do it!"

"I suppose we really have to now, huh?"

"Well, I don't know Shizuru. Do we really? Do we really have to do this?" Sarcastic. She's being sarcastic from being impatient. She ignored the other lady who is still trying to buy some time for the impending event.

"I think… Ara, that's gigantic! Isn't that ano… a little too… big?"

"WELL THEN DON'T LOOK!" The younger lady had lost it and snapped, finally.

She hurriedly poked her head outside the curtain of her booth and gave an apologetic gesture -with a smile, of course- to everyone who's looking where the angry holler came from. She looked back and saw how uncomfortable the ex-kaichou is and decided that it's better to spare more -just a little bit more- patience. She sighed and tried to spoke softly this time. "Shizuru, this is not big at all. As a matter of fact this is what we use for babies when they need their blood drawn."

"_We?_ You mean my sweet Natsuki do this to babies too? Poor babies. I can't believe you…"

"Shizuru, it's my job and has been for years. Now give me your arm."

"Ara, how could I have forgotten! How stupid of me. I need to take my vitamins. I'll come back tom…"

"No, you're not! You have bothered me enough today. You came to my workplace without notice, introduced yourself to my colleagues as my_ fiancée_ and made me a home made bentou like a kid. I believe that's enough embarrassment for a year. We will do this now. _YOU_ will do this now!"

"Ara ara, but my vitamins…"

"You don't take vitamins."

"Yes I do."

"No, you don't."

"I don't?"

"Nope."

"Do you?"

"No."

"Did you like my bentou?"

"Shizuru! Enough! You can't keep me stalling like this. I'm on the clock, you know. I don't wanna hear anything from my boss. Now let me see your arm!"

"How long have Natsuki been working as a Lab Tech again?"

"Medical Technologist, Shizuru. Med Tech." (vein popping out of Natsuki's forehead)

"Same difference."

"NO IT'S NOT!" Natsuki never liked it when this kind of stupid conversation ever comes up. And she knows well that Shizuru is doing it on purpose. They had this conversation several times before. And it had never fail to irrigate the younger girl.

"Phlebotomist then?"

"NO! GIVE. ME. YOUR. ARM." Natsuki have had enough of this. She's giving out icy glares but Shizuru continuously posing her stupid plastic smile that everybody else calls "perfect smile". Natsuki sometimes get the temptation of slapping Shizuru in the face –like now, at this very moment- while she's making that perfect smile of hers and see what will happen. Will it shatter? Natsuki highly doubt it. How about if she kiss it? Hmm… maybe.

"Natsuki is soooo kawaii! And you look a total hotty on that lab coat! I knew you'd look good in white lab coats." Natsuki bluuuuushessssssssss heavily. "whoa… is it hot in here or is it my NA-TSU-KI?" (BLUSHES EVEN MORE)

Shizuru's smile widens. It's amazing how she can smile that serene while her hands are perspiring and cold from the fear of needle. For some odd reason, Natsuki is getting a bit of a kick out of this new found Shizuru character. She has never seen Shizuru act stupid like this. The kaichou usually is too cunning to figure out. She usually gets out of unwanted situations subtly and undetected. But now… Is she really THIS scared of needles? Natsuki can only ask herself. She's enjoying it too much –but not showing it, of course- to ask the other girl.

"Yeah, yeah, perhaps I'll ask my boss to give me another one and take it home for your amusement. Yes?" _Oh no, my perverted boss might actually do it if he's hearing this foolish conversation._ Natsuki thought. "Here, wipe your drool." She said jokingly as she showed her back to the patient to hide her smile.

As she took the tissue paper Natsuki hand her, she said "heh. heh. I like your boss' mustache." _That is a stupid comment._ Shizuru thought and that's all she could think about, really. She doesn't remember why or since when she's been so afraid of needles, either. She's out of her character and she knows it well. She's glad that it is only Natsuki that's witnessing this major fall out of her strictly trained and emotion-proof self. If it's Natsuki she sure wouldn't mind… as much. She's willing to show everything to her if Natsuki would prefer it like that.

"Ok, that's it!"

Natsuki grabbed Shizuru's left wrist/arm and placed the latter's arm on the cold chair's extended armrest where Shizuru has been seated. It took her a while just to settle in that chair too. Shizuru thinks of the phlebotomy chair as an electric-chair. She felt like she's getting electrocuted by thousand of volts of electricity when she sits on them. As if her bum is on fire that she has to shift every now and then.

_If peace-talk doesn't work, force does!_

Over powering Shizuru in her condition right now was not easy at all. She's afraid and a lot stronger. A needle she's holding on her right hand has made that hand mostly useless for anything else. But after a few more minutes of arm wrestling and a few needle treating to stick some place else more painful if _someone_ continue to struggle, Shizuru finally gave up and relaxed her arm on its designated area; on top of the extended wooden armrest.

"I… I can't do this after all, Natsuki. I just can't."

The poor patient, though, have not succeeded much on her game of buying time to avoid another traumatic experience has decided to draw her last card. "The fake-tear Ace card" She has been saving that card for these kinds of situation when all other techniques had been meaningless and no effect. She had tried it once or twice before on Natsuki and it worked like chugging-down-raw-eggs-in-the-morning-of-a-hangover. But this time it doesn't seem like it's working. Natsuki is too focused on her job that she didn't even see Shizuru's fake tear fall.

"Don't move. Don't you dare move a muscle." Natsuki's hands are shaking. She can't even decide how to hold her needle right. She hasn't been this nervous and afraid of sticking a person since she stuck a patient on her first day on the job several years ago.

**FLASH BACK**

Several years ago. Natsuki had just recently passed her board and now gotten a job at a hospital. Her boss sent her to the ambulatory lab area to get comfortable and start off with an easier job. She met her new 3 senpai and had a little tour before she started.

It's a small place. It only has 2 rooms and 4 booths for blood drawing, one restroom and a water fountain. It's more like a clinic-type but the smell of a hospital is still lingering around. Must be from all those chemicals medical facilities can't survive without. From the anti-bacterial soap to alcohol swab to the disinfectant air freshener to patient's unique aromas and et cetera.

The booths are commonly used for able patients. Natsuki hated it for it is narrow and only thick heavy curtains are dividing all 4 of them. The curtains are from the ceiling down to half a feet away from the tiled while floor. The curtains are for patient's privacy they say but she started to think after a couple of weeks working in it, that it's there to suffocate people that goes in; including her.

"I'm a difficult to get blood from, miss. Please be very gentle."

Natsuki knew the drill but it seems to have been buried and forgotten as she found herself in one of the booths and standing frozen in front of her patient.

"I umm… thank you for letting me know, Toshiba-san." _Oh for Duran's sake, it's difficult enough to gather guts to do it on your first day, then this. Did she really have to add more pressure on me? She must get her blood drawn a lot for her to say that. Well I hope I can get the blood. I really hope I can. _She prays to her god as the patient prays for her safety as well.

Everything is set and in its place. She's sweating wild and she can feel her face flushed that started from her ear all the way down her neck. Her heart feels like it's having its own marathon inside. She can feel her pulse in her fingertips. _This is it. I'm going in. I'm so glad she's looking the other way._

A STICK

The patient jerked a little as the needle penetrated her wrinkly skin from old age. That didn't help to make Natsuki's job easier. She's not happy about that little movement but she understood that it is inevitable sometimes. She just hoped that her stick punctured a wall of the patient's vein.

"Did you get it?" the patient asked.

_Oh crap… I didn't. _"No. Not yet, ma'am. I'm gonna need to do a bit of adjustment, please stay still."

"Oh please, god help us." The patient had begun her prayers.

"Is it coming out?" The impatient patient asked again

"Yes, we got it." Question after question in the range of a couple of second –literary- can really get into Natsuki's nerves but she needed concentration more than anything now so she let it go.

"You got it?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Oh, thank you Jesus!"

"Oh, it's Natsuki not…." She realized how stupid she was right after she took the needle out of the patient's arm; a second after that statement came out of her mouth. She turned red even more and was not able to make eye contact to the patient that is now unusually quiet.

Since the drill before hunting for veins was not done properly, Natsuki didn't get to introduce her self to her patient. She new the patient's name from the doctor's Rx note that she was holding as she entered the booth. But the urge to complete her supposedly scripted drill lingered in the beck her mind.

"I'm sorry, I thought…" Thunders of laughter filled the booth. Luckily, the old lady didn't take it as a rude comment nor some kind of blasphemy towards her god. Natsuki started laughing too. Then finally, she guided the old lady out to the waiting area where she found her new boss with a weird thick salt and peppery mustache. The boss took over to guide the old lady.

"I like this kid. She's funny. She's new isn't she?" the old lady asked the man with mustache.

"Yes ma." _Did he just say 'ma'. _Natsuki wasn't sure if she heard it correct.

"I found one problem with her, though. I think, she thinks her name is Jesus." More laughter was heard from the hall as the son walked her mother to her car.

**END OF FLASH BACK**

That memory has relaxed Natsuki. She has more confident now and determined to do it as painless as possible.

"Ok, here it goes, Shizuru. I'm counting to three. One… T…"

A STICK.

_ohmygod.ohmygod.ohmygod.ohmygod.Imgonnadie.Imgonnadie.Imgonnadie._ Is all Shizuru's head could manage to think or say. _ohmygod.ohmygod.ohmygod.ohmygod_ Her right foot twisting like it's ballet dancing. Her right hand holding on to Natsuki's side lab coat, but not as tight as it choke or loose the concentration of the lady in front of her. Her head low. Tears –real ones- falling on her purse that's sitting on her lap. She is still freaking out.

_ohmygod.ohmygod.ohmygod.ohmygod_

"Ok, done."

Shizuru could only look up to Natsuki with questioning look. She's afraid to look at her arm infested needle –well, that's how horrible she felt.

"It's done. See?" Just to convince the patient that it is really done she waved her needle in front of Shizuru before she threw it in the biohazard box that is plastered on Natsuki's table of equipments.

"Oh…"

"Yep, that quick."

"Ara, ara…" She wiped her tears dry.

"What? You're crying over a simple blood draw? I can't believe it!"

"I was really scared, you know. I can't help it. It's not the pain, I know. But I was really…" A KISS

"There. Is it all better now?"

"Ara… I think Natsuki missed. It is my arm that hurts not my lips." She grinned widely as she savored the sight of her lover's face as it bloomed in to a redder shade of pink.

"Baka" Natsuki gave her another kiss on her lips.

**END**

**BONUS**:

NATSUKI: Ne, Shizuru, Why did you need a blood test for? Are you sick?

SHIZURU: I don't know if it can be called sickness, really.

NATSUKI: Well, what is it?

SHIZURU: Youko-sensei didn't think it was.

NATSUKI: (read the doctor's Rx note) HCG quantitative!?

SHIZURU: That's what she wrote.

NATSUKI: Human Chorionic Gonadotropin level!? YOU'RE PREGNANT?!

SHIZURU: Ara, that's what I want to know. (she grins) If the urine pregnancy test is correct.

NATSUKI: You had a urine pregnancy test and found out YOU'RE PREGNANT!?

SHIZURU: YES, and it is YOURS!

NATSUKI: REALLY!? Wait… how did that happen? Oh god, what have I done to you!?

SHIZURU: (just enjoying the moment laughing at her little joke in one corner)

NATSUKI: Youko-sensei was right! It certainly is NOT a simple sickness! Because what you have is a chronic disease! Your perverted thoughts had finally eaten up all the good brain cells left in your head!

SHIZURU: Ara, does the hot Lab Tech in white coat knows of a remedy? (wink) (giggles)

NATSUKI: I AM NOT A… yeah, I have an idea.

SHIZURU: What is it, then?

NATSUKI: THIS BIG OF A NEEDLE IN YOUR ARM! hah! (flashes the biggest needle she could find in her needle collection; 16 gauge)

SHIZURU: …. (dropped dead) ….

NATSUKI: omg… Shizuru!

Time of Death: 10:06

Cause of Death: Syncope? (shrugs)

**

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**MY NOTES:**

They say 10 of adults are suffering from Trypanophobia (terrified with needles). So, I figure why not Shizuru? Though, it is a bit hard to imagine Shizuru being afraid of anything.

16 gauge needles are not advisable for a simple procedure as blood drawing. It is commonly used for Lumbar puncture, Hemodialysis, Blood donation and occasionally for IVs. The bigger the gauge the smaller the needle. Natsuki used a 23 gauge on Shizuru and a 22 on the old lady.

Phlebotomy is a procedure of extracting blood from a vein. Phlebotomist (a profession), is commonly known as Lab Tech. Med tech, y'll know what that is.

HCG Quantitative is a pregnancy test done using blood.

-is a more precise blood test to find out if a lady is truly pregnant, how many weeks even days has it been after the successful conception and if a pregnant woman is having (or had) a miscarriage. This test can also detect if a person (female or male, even) is having some type of germ cell tumors. So, if it is impossible for Shizuru to get knocked up with out any help of a man (or sperm implants of some sort) then Shizuru must have an ovarian tumor! Unless of course, the test comes out clean. (shrugs)

translations:

kaichou – president

senpai – senior/seniority

bentou – lunch/lunch box

that's it, right?

**Syncope**

Oh I almost forgot!

Syncope (sin-kuh-pee) in medical term means lost of consciousness / fainted


End file.
